Anna Windass
Anna Windass was a longstanding Coronation Street resident and Roy's Rolls waitress. She is the mother of Gary Windass through her common-law marriage to Eddie and adoptive mother of Faye. Anna, Eddie and 22-year-old Gary moved into No.6 in 2008. They were initially unpopular in the Street due to their feud with their immediate neighbours the Platts, which started when they refused to pay for a kitchen fitted by Joe McIntyre at their previous address. Gradually they settled in, though Gary remained a loose cannon, causing Anna no end of despair. In 2010, Anna pushed for the Windasses to become foster parents. This led to Anna and Eddie's separation as Eddie, initially supportive, couldn't cope with troubled young Faye and left to work in Germany. Anna then got close to builder Owen Armstrong and, having adopted Faye, they became a family unit. Times were often hard; in 2013 they were blackmailed by Owen's business partner Pat Phelan, who Anna slept with in order for him to release Gary and Owen from their contract. Two years later, Faye gave birth to a daughter, Miley, at thirteen years old and Anna finished with Owen after he thumped Craig Tinker, wrongly believing him to be the father. In 2016, Anna was caught up in a car explosion and her legs received serious burns, causing scars both physical and emotional. That same year, Phelan returned and started to build a future in Coronation Street, marrying Eileen Grimshaw and taking over Jason's building firm. Anna suspected him of multiple crimes, but was never able to prove her allegations and so was forced to tolerate his presence in her life. However, her bitterness caused a two-year relationship with Kevin Webster to break down. When Phelan set Anna up to be blamed for pushing Seb Franklin off his ladder in 2017, Anna was wrongfully convicted of attempted murder. Her incarceration lasted only months as she was let out on bail when Phelan was found to have murdered four people. At the time of her release, Phelan was on the run from the police. Anna located and fatally stabbed him, rescuing his hostage Michelle Connor and ending his reign of terror. Following her ordeal with Phelan, Anna left Weatherfield for a new life in Durham. Biography Anna was born in 1967, and later met Eddie Windass. In 1986 their son Gary was born. Anna and Eddie never married, but they remained together and presented themselves to the world as a married couple. Eddie had proposed several times but she always turned him down. Eddie was involved in scams with his brother Len, often bringing trouble. He had also begun faking a disability. Gary grew up to be a trouble maker, often ending up in prison time and again. In 2008, the family began a feud with Joe McIntyre and the Platts after refusing to pay for a kitchen he fitted in their house. Joe's daughter's boyfriend David Platt came round and ripped out the kitchen. Anna, Eddie and Gary moved next door to the Platt family after renting the house from Jerry Morton. Anna decided to make amends and made friends with Gail Platt, Joe's girlfriend, although Joe and David weren't happy with the idea. Gary and David began to have feuds, and ended up getting into a fight which nearly got Gary done for assault, but thankfully David's girlfriend Tina McIntyre told the truth in court that David threw the first punch, and they later split up. Anna got herself a job in Roy's Rolls, but Eddie wanted some free booze so took Roy Cropper's identity and went on a shopping trip at the cash and carry, all without Anna's knowledge. He wasn't found out until Roy's wife Hayley discovered that "Roy" had won a prize for being the millionth customer, and won a holiday. Anna felt embarrassed but the Croppers decided not to press charges and let Anna keep her job. She then told Eddie to stop his scheming and to stop faking his disability. In January 2011, Anna started fostering a troubled young girl named Faye Butler. This caused difficulties between Anna and Eddie as he didn't want to adopt but he nevertheless wanted to make Anna happy so he let it go through. However, when he couldn't cope, he split with Anna and moved to Germany. In April 2014, Anna took on the role of cleaner at the Rovers, because of the financial problems that the family was suffering from. In April 2015, Faye gave birth to her daughter, Miley, just at the age of thirteen. She wanted to give her up for adoption, devastating Anna, as she didn't want Faye to make the wrong decision, but Anna's then boyfriend, Owen Armstrong, only saw Anna's actions as selfish. In June, at Miley's christening, Faye ran out of St. Mary's Church and she confided in her biological dad, Tim Metcalfe, that she was not ready to be a mother yet. The baby's paternal grandparents, Greig and Josie Hodge offered to have baby Miley to go and live with them. Both Anna and Tim were against the idea but soon discovered this was the only option to prevent baby Miley from being adopted. Later that same month, Anna and the rest of the Windasses said a tearful goodbye to baby Miley. In August, the Hodges moved to Canada with the baby with no intention of returning. In September 2015, during the leaving party of Lloyd Mullaney and Andrea Beckett at the Rovers, Anna drunkenly told Tim that his fiancé Sally Webster had kissed her ex-lover: Kevin. This briefly ruined their relationship, but Sally and Tim eventually made up and went on to marry. By that time, Anna and Kevin had bonded and they gradually embarked on a relationship. In January 2016, Anna was one of the people to prevent the cleaners from ruining Craig Tinker's graffiti in memory of Maddie Heath. Later on that night, she witnessed Kevin jumping in to save a man's life after nearly getting struck by Jamie Bowman - who had just robbed the Bistro and left Carla Connor brutally unconscious. Anna was relieved when she rushed over to Kevin, glad that he was unharmed, but was surprised to see that the man whom he saved was Phelan - who himself had returned to the streets. After informing Izzy of his return, Anna was started when Phelan visited her and promised that she wouldn't cause him any trouble as long as he didn't either. At first it looked like that Phelan wasn't staying long when Kevin assured Anna that it was only a brief contract, even though she hasn't told him about her past with Phelan; however, as the pressure went on for her, Anna grew so outraged that she stormed round to the yard and smashed his van before lashing out at him. Phelan later went round to demand that she apologise to him in public at the Rovers. When Anna refused and tried standing up to him, Phelan pinned her against the wall and started to issue further threats when Kevin walked in at that moment - thus realising how Anna was right about Phelan. After seeing Phelan bond a relationship with Eileen Grimshaw, Anna attempted to warn her about him - only to be dismissed as Phelan has already swayed Eileen into believing otherwise. Shortly afterwards, Anna clashed with Phelan again when he told her that he would be staying for as long as he pleased. Three months before the end of 2016, in October, Anna was horrified when Gary was nearly killed during an attempt to rescue Lily Platt - whose father, David, was involved in a car accident. Although she and the residents helped Gary rescue Lily before the car exploded, Anna was caught up in a second explosion that badly burned her legs. Despite the extend of her injuries, Anna gradually recovered for the rest of the year. In the midst of her recovery, Anna unwittingly discovered that Phelan and his cohort Vinny Ashford had been conning the residents out of £15,000 - including Gary's girlfriend Sarah Platt along with fellow residents Rita Turner and Yasmeen Nazir. Teaming up with Eileen's ex-boyfriend Michael Rodwell, who shared Anna's mutual hatred of Phelan given their feud earlier on, the pair sought to bring down Phelan: while Michael broke into Vinny's site office to extract evidence against them, Anna attempted to stall Phelan by inviting him over and then offering £2,000 for him to leave Weatherfield for good. However, Phelan learned of their conspiracy when he caught Anna with his phone and left to confront Michael in a showdown - which tragically ended when Michael died of a heart attack, and Phelan watched him die to stop him from exposing his Calcutta Street scam. Anna was guilt-ridden over Michael's death and tried unsuccessfully in vain to expose Phelan's role in it, even failing to expose his involvement in the scam by the time the residents learned the truth after Vinny did a runner with all the money. In 2017, problems occurred between Anna and her daughter when Faye formed a relationship with Phelan's apprentice: Seb Franklin, particularly as he got arrested for assaulting Miley's father Jackson Hodge - who had briefly came back with Miley for Faye to spend time with her. Over time, however, Anna gradually accepted Seb being together with Faye when she learned the truth about his poverty. In October 2017, Anna and Seb's bonding strained when social services took his young siblings away from Abi Franklin's custody and he accused her of calling them. The next day, when Seb again confronted Anna and started calling her names, she slapped him in front of some witnesses - including Phelan. Towards the end of her shift in that evening, Anna witnessed Seb fall off a ladder and phoned an ambulance. At Weatherfield General, while awaiting news of his recovery, Anna formed a conversation with Seb's social worker: Nicola Rubinstein, who she had recently learned was Phelan's long-lost daughter. Following an earlier altercation with Phelan over her incident with Seb at the café, Anna confided in Nicola about what her father had done to her as well as Gary and Owen. This triggered a conversation between Nicola and her father, though not before she used Anna's warning to learn that Phelan had raped her own mother Annabel Rubinstein just nine months before her birth; the argument ended with Nicola disowning Phelan after concluding that Anna was telling the truth about him. Plotting revenge over turning his daughter against him, Phelan framed Anna for pushing Seb off a ladder by placing her earring - which she dropped in the Builder's Yard, after her altercation with Phelan, inside Barlow Legal Services (which was the building from which Seb fell). In November 2017, Anna learned about Phelan's plan after being arrested and then released. When she confronted him over this, Anna was shocked to learn from Phelan that Gary and Nicola had not only been having an affair - but Nicola was also expecting a baby. After Phelan refunded everyone who was affected in the Calcutta Street flats scam, he tried to convince Anna he was a changed man. Anna placed a recording mobile phone in her kitchen and invited Phelan over for a drink, hoping to get him to confess to framing her; however, Phelan pretended he had no clue what she was talking about. Later that night, Phelan manipulated Seb into believing that Anna pushed him off the ladder; which eventually led to Anna being arrested and charged with GBH. In December 2017, she fainted in prison and was rushed to hospital - where she took an opportunity to escape, only to be rearrested. In January 2018, Anna was found guilty and sentenced to five years imprisonment. She, and her family, absolutely shocked by the verdict, viewed nothing but contempt towards Pat - especially Anna, who called him 'pure evil.' Anna was released from Norcross Prison amid the discovery that Pat Phelan was in fact a serial killer, a rapist and a fraudster. Her son Gary was determined to find Phelan and hurt him for all the grief he had given the Windass family. Gary drove to Wales with his friend Joe Haslam, knocked Pat unconscious and kidnapped him from the caravan park in Abergele where he had been hiding. Pat was forcibly returned to Weatherfield in the back of Gary's van and locked up inside the Builder's Yard where he once worked. After an unsuccessful escape attempt from captivity involving bribing Jack Webster with money, Pat managed to trick Gary and his girlfriend Sarah, and he escaped from the room; locking the pair inside. He then retrieved a pistol he'd hidden in the yard months previously that the police hadn't found when they raided the premises following Eileen's wrongful arrest for her role in his crimes. He walked across to No. 11 and accidentally shot his daughter, Nicola during Seb's attempt to disarm him. As he walked into the bistro, ordering help for his badly injured daughter Nicola; he forcibly strangled Michelle Connor in the kitchen, where Anna stood. Michelle tried to break free from Phelan's clutches, but he shot her. Anna, in retaliation and self-defence, ran up to Phelan and stabbed him in the chest. Phelan, wishing to evade imprisonment, took the knife out, causing him to bleed out profusely. He died moments later, with Anna announcing her victory over Phelan, laconically stating to his face before his death: "I win." Following the incident, Anna revealed her plans to move to Durham for a new life, with Faye going with her. However, Faye did not stay in Durham for long, and returned to Weatherfield to live with her father, Tim Metcalfe and her stepmother Sally at No.4. Personality Relationships Hobbies and interests Other information *In 2009, it was mentioned that Anna's mother is dead. *Anna is a fan of Dolly Parton, and once saw Duran Duran live in concert as a teenager. *Anna mentioned her favourite food is Shepherd's Pie. *Anna has a brother who has never appeared on-screen, that lives in Liverpool. She went to visit him off-screen once for a couple of days. Background information First and last lines "Like Torvill and Dean." (First line) --- "Thanks, Kev" (Final line) Appendices List of addresses Employment history See also *Full list of appearances Category:Coronation Street characters Category:Windass family Category:Residents of 6 Coronation Street Category:1967 births Category:Roy's Rolls staff Category:2008 debuts Category:Cleaners Category:Residents of 9a/19a Rosamund Street Category:Residents of 13 Coronation Street Category:2018 departures Category:Articles in need of major additions Category:Articles needing completion Category:Corner Shop staff